Sharen Neuhardt, candidate of the 1%

Who cares that you start your campaign $92K in the hole, as soon as you turn on the new campaign, the money rolls in, $97,510, and you pay off your former political consultant a 4-year-old debt of $5k, you start paying yourself back on the loans you made, and you collect the money for the primary AND the general all at once (two checks of $2,500) as if the law that limits the campaign to $2,500 per cycle makes a difference. You don’t play by the rules the everyday candidate has to play by.

Take a look at this filing from the FEC. Her check of $2,700 to NGP VAN for her software rental was almost half of all I raised.

She hired a staffer (obviously to call donors for her) Uriah Anderson, for about $1,600 every two weeks. She spent $19,873.02 and this was the filing through Feb. 15th (I was too busy running to do the proper reporting).

We have the best candidate money could buy- and she won with a paltry 7,530 votes. That works out to: $12.95 a vote.

If she continues on that pace, and has to beat just Turner’s primary vote- of 79,548 at $12,95 a vote, she needs to raise: $1,030,123 ignoring the fact that the general election will have a much higher turnout. No matter what, she’s going to need at least 2 commas in her campaign chest.

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Hey David, you seem to be very knowledgeable about the board of elections. I believe I got an all republican ballot the other day. I wanted to vote for Sheriff Plummer because I love him and a few republican judges. If a person votes openly regardless of party, versus strickly for one party, do you have to say independent or you only get a one party ballot?

Hi Lynn, Plummer didn’t have a primary challenger- he was guaranteed to win. I doubt any of the judges had opposition either. In Ohio you can ask for an “issues only ballot” and be a “independent”- which means you only get to pick from whatever others picked for you in a primary- or you can pick the 2 major parties or the 5 minor ones. This year- the Green party actually had 2 candidates vying for an office so you would have had one choice.

I’ve covered this before on the site. And I thought I could count on your vote… :-(

@David Lauri- sorry, yep- our great democracy doesn’t do a very good job of explaining our system of voting. I guess I’ll have to make a video about it….

@Ryan, I hate to tell you this, but, None of the above would have beat you and Mack on this. You did well for doing next to nothing- apparently your power base is in Fayette County. Don’t let that deter you, learn what works. Shake a lot of hands- not at candidates nights- but, door to door- and have at least a business card to hand out.